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Japanese invasion of China
The Japan-China War started in July 1937 when the Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing.The Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China using the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
One of Adolf Hitler's first major foreign policy initiatives after coming to power was to sign a nonaggression pact with Poland.On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. -
German Blitzkrieg
German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium.blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union.three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. -
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. -
Wannsee Conference
On January, 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution (Endlösung) in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons. -
Operation Gomorrah
On this day in 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah.Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. -
D-Day Normandy Invasion
On June 6, 1944, the Allies invade Western Europe in the largest amphibious attack in history.The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
Operation Thunderclap
On the night of 13/14 February 1945 we were briefed to mark for 5 Group Lancasters as the opening salvo in the attack, other Groups in Bomber Command following in later waves. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations.Invasion of Iwol jima during WW2 stemmed from the need for a base near the japanese coast -
Battle of Okinawa
Biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign.It involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. -
Battle of the Bulge
Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise.three German armies launched the deadliest and most desperate battle of the war in the west in the poorly roaded, rugged, heavily forested Ardennes -
VE Day
the public holiday celebrated to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The united states became the first and only nation to use atomic bombs during war.The dropping of the atomic bomb marked the end of WW2.Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon.After having been warned by Albert Einstein that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. -
VJ Day
On August 15, 1945, news of the surrender was announced to the world. This sparked spontaneous celebrations over the final ending of World War II. A surrender ceremony was held in tokyo Bay aboard the USS missouri
